LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University baseball program will try to snap a six-game skid against a familiar foe in the Alabama State Hornets, beginning with game one Friday night at 6 p.m.
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The Braves (6-15, 6-13 SWAC) are top-three in the Southwestern Athletic Conference for double plays turned per game (0.52) and strikeouts per nine innings (8.4) while residing in the league's upper half regarding batting average (.248), hits allowed per nine innings (10.94), on-base percentage (.354) and scoring (5.8).
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Tristin Garcia has the second-best hits per game average (1.81) and the fourth-highest batting average (.452) in the NCAA while ranking tenth for on-base percentage (.521) plus top-45 for toughest to strikeout (10.5).
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Jose Fernandez is the undisputed ace of the team, posting an ERA among the 45 best in the country (2.17), the second-best WHIP in the conference (1.09) and fourth-lowest hits allowed per nine innings in the SWAC (6.50).
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Khalil Smith has set the table with authority for Coach Richardson as he's 19th in the nation with 0.95 walks per game and top-75 at runs per game (1.05).
Scouting the Alabama State Hornets (16-17, 8-7 SWAC)
It has been a down season for ASU by their standards but still have a winning conference record and notched eight non-conference victories.
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The Hornets have been an upper echelon offensive squad in 2021 with the second-most triples per game (0.55), tenth-highest batting average (.304), 18th-best scoring attack (7.6 runs per game) and top-25 placements for both on-base (.396) plus slugging percentage (.473) in the nation.
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Jabronski Williams, Trenton Jamison and Cristopher DeGuzman spearhead the lethal bats deployed by Coach Jose Vazques while Payton Harris fronts a formidable rotation.
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The Purple and Gold are ahead in the all-time\ series but the Black and Gold have closed the gap significantly over the past few years as Alcorn leads 133-117-1.
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#FearTheBrave
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